and, at Brunswick,--cheered by the grand welcome he found
there,--has delightful outlooks (might I dare to suggest them,
Monseigneur?) of touring about in the German Courts, with some
Circular HORTATORIUM, or sublime Begging-Letter from the Kaiser, in
his hand; and, by witchery of tongue, urging Wurtemberg, Brunswick,
Baireuth, Anspach, Berlin, to compliance with the Imperial Majesty
and France. [Ib. lxxiii. 133.] Would not that be sublime! But that,
like the rest, in spite of one's talent, came to nothing. Talent?
Success? Madame de Chateauroux had, in the interim, taken a dislike
to M. Amelot; "could not bear his stammering," the fastidious
Improper Female; flung Amelot overboard,--Amelot, and his luggage
after him, Voltaire's diplomatic hopes included; and there was
an end.

How ravishing the thing had been while it lasted, judge by these
other stray symptoms; hastily picked up, partly at Berlin, partly
at Brunswick; which show us the bright meridian, and also the
blaze, almost still more radiant, which proved to be sunset.
Readers have heard of Voltaire's Madrigals to certain Princesses;
and must read these Three again,--which are really incomparable in
their kind; not equalled in graceful felicity even by Goethe, and
by him alone of Poets approached in that respect. At Berlin, Autumn
1743, Three consummate Madrigals:--

1. TO PRINCESS ULRIQUE.

"Souvent un peu de verite
Se mele au plus grossier mensonge:
Cette nuit, dans l'erreur d'un songe,
Au rang des rois j'etais monte.